ChinaChina

King’s College London is joining forces with the Beijing Genomics Institute in a £20 million research programme to study epigenetic differences between twins.

China’s new Nebulae Supercomputer has moved to the number two spot, on the tail of the world’s most powerful computer, Jaguar, based at the US Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Merck Serono is to establish a global R&D centre in Beijing, investing more than €150 million over the next four years.

Recent improvements in intellectual property protection make China a great place to innovate, says patent attorney Adrian Tombling.

With a huge stimulus fund and long-term plans, China is aiming for a leading role in the wave of innovations it expects after the economic downturn.

On current growth rates China will overtake the US to become the world’s largest patent filing jurisdiction by 2012, according to market analysts Evalueserve.

The European Patent Office has launched a €16 million plan to try to ensure that the intellectual property rights newly enshrined in China are upheld.

The State Intellectual Property Office of China has launched a free online machine translation service for patent information searchers.

The UK has strengthened its scientific ties with China with the official opening of the Research Councils UK office in Beijing, the first of its type outside Europe.